…Jesus invites his followers to look at the mystery of growth. He wants them to suspend ordinary functional consciousness (“Seeds just grow and then we harvest the seeds and make bread and eat it, so that’s a good thing”) and look at the process—the dynamics of growth. “Earth,” says Jesus, “produces of itself.” That’s the key line in the whole parable. Earth is a living organism within a living universe that knows how to do life. This wisdom comes as standard equipment in creation. Life emerges.

…the same mysterious power that we observe animating a plant also animates our growth. We’re meant to come to full flower. Before the end of our life, all that we have done, all that we have been, all that we have contributed will be harvested to serve the ongoing evolutionary journey of the cosmos.